Minneapolis Minnesota
by S1leNt RIP
Summary: I've traveled to Minneapolis Minnesota to speak with a survivor who lead one of the most well equipped groups of the war. It also had one of the highest survival rates. David tells the story of how he prepared for something that most had never imagined.


Minneapolis, Minnesota

**[I pull up in front of a large brick building. Other than the broken pieces of stained glass that still cling to some of the window frames, there is nothing to indicate that this is the church where upwards of thirty teens held off the undead for the duration of the war. A man steps out of the front door as I get out of my vehicle. He's still young, tall with dark brown hair and a face that has seen it's share of hard times. His left arm is missing from just above the elbow. I shake his hand as he begins his story.]**

We were lucky, or blessed, but either way we were prepared. Not that we could have been prepared for all the death and destruction that we'd see, if we had to be prepared for that then you can call me a liar, but what we did have was a plan.

It had started as a joke. We would talk about zombies and what we'd do if they ever actually existed and all that jazz. It was all in good fun, just some fresh conversation within the youth group. Well one day we went out to eat after small groups and talked a little more, wondered if we'd need to designate certain women as 'Eves' so that we could repopulate the earth if it ever got that bad. After that talk Jesse, our youth pastor 'commissioned' me to create the official youth group zombie plan. Oh it was fun little plan, had all of us in our little squads and went over how we'd need to go buy supplies if we ever heard about zombies.

Naive sure, it had a clause about non youth group siblings as well as no parents or non youth group love interests allowed, finally figuring out how to take care of all of us was a challenge all by itself, but if I hadn't written that plan we might not be standing here today. Just one of the ways God showed his mercy throughout the war.

**When did you suspect that things weren't as they seemed?**

It was when I first started hearing about African rabies. For some reason the first thing I thought when I heard of it was 'zombie,' don't ask me why but that is when I started suspecting. So I started quietly buying extra ammunition for my hunting rifle. I knew I'd use it eventually so I thought there'd be no harm in it. The real straw that broke the camels back was when Phalanx came out. I didn't even stop to think if it might work, by that time I was signing up for credit cards, selling all the personal electronics I could and buying up real supplies. Food, water, weapons, ammunition.

**[Laughs]** I actually called a meeting during youth group one night, or at least I tried. Some of the others were starting to get a little worried, and we all met later and decided on a plan. All of us that could buy guns would, those who couldn't but could drive go out and would buy nonperishable food items and water.

It worked better than we could have imagined. We had such a surplus before the Great Panic that while everyone else was out looting food and water we were gathering whatever we could from the hardware stores and gas stations. We got generators, steel bars and pipes, as well as a welding machine from my friend's work. We set to work and had us one dang near impregnable fortress before we even caught a look at Zach.

**What did you do about numbers? Weren't there parents involved?**

There were, and small children. We had to secure my friend Emmet's work, the same place he got the welder from. It was a physics lab and it didn't take much, using plywood to hide the entrances and welding some steel bars across the one window. That place was a fortress, all brick and steel. The only thing that anyone would have to worry about there would be lack of food, and that's where Emmet's dad came in. He was the head physicist and owner of the company, and when he started to realize what was happening he got everyone to work. Before they knew it, all of our parents were out gathering dirt. Can you believe it? They were taking dirt from wherever they could find it and putting it on the roof. He had the foresight to know that we'd be growing our own food before the end of the war, and it was probably what saved the majority their lives.

**Their?**

The teens, the ones who were in the youth group, we all stayed at the church. It was nowhere near as protected as Koral, that was the name of the physics lab by the way, but it had enough space to house us as well as all the supplies that we had been gathering. It wasn't a paradise by any means, but it was a lot better than you hear tell of.

**How long did your supplies last?**

I'm sure they would've lasted a couple years if we hadn't figured out that zeds freeze in winter. Minnesota is cold enough without zombie prolonged winter, so we had a lot of time to move around safely. We'd gather more supplies, try and hunt any wild game that was left, and smash as many zedsicles as we could find. It was definitely the safest time for us.

Now before you start thinking we had it made, remember they weren't easy times either. Like I said, Minnesota is cold enough, and with the winters that we started having? If you left your face exposed for more than a couple minutes you could expect to lose a nose or an ear. It was bad. But we'd all lived with it most our lives so a few more degrees below zero wasn't anything we couldn't handle.

**How often did you encounter Zach?**

A few would show up at the church every now and then and we'd have target practice from the roof. Sure that brought more, but what were they going to do? Our castle wasn't going to be breached, we were too smart! Turns out Zach had other plans.

One night, I think it was in July, we were changing the squads for patrol duty when we heard a groan from the downstairs. You should have seen everyone move. I got my squad together as quickly as I could and we went down the stairs. I guess we had made a mistake when we were sealing up the entrances, because they had walked right in one of the doors. We had welded steel bars to it, since it was a glass door, but someone forgotten to actually close and lock it. No one saw how it got in but by the time we heard the moan there were thirty in the church and at least a hundred crowding around the doorway. We laid into them with all the rifles, shotguns and pistols we had. It got pretty hairy at times but we were blessed when one of them pushed the door closed as it tried to get it. Well we cleared the rest of them out, then went on a church wide sweep to make sure that we hadn't made that mistake anywhere else, and to clear out any zeds that had made it downstairs.

That was the last time any of them got into the church, but we had other encounters. You see we divided into four teams to share duties, and if you weren't on one of these you either had a special role or you were on reserve. We'd rotate night watch, day watch, cooking and cleanup, and then the real fun stuff, scouting and recovery excursions. If we ever had something we needed, a new generator for example, extra gas, warmer clothing, one group would head out to get it. We moved quickly, quietly dispatching any zed with our hand to hand weapons, and taking what we needed then getting the heck out of there. That was a real rush. We were usually cooped up inside, all safe and sound that we had to establish turns for who got to go out, otherwise everyone would have fought to go. One time we even made a trip to the library to pick up books to help with boredom. When we got there it turned out that there were more zeds then books! Dang people must've burned em for warmth. **[Laughs again then takes on a more sober expression]** I guess we should have been more thankful though, at least we'd never needed to burn books.

There was one time…

**[He pauses]**

It was one of the worst moments of the war personally. It was early spring, and we were just coming back from Wal-Mart. We had been running low on batteries for our radios so we decided to make a trip while one of the other squads was picking up some food from a supermarket that was close by. We rendezvoused and started making our way through some houses that we had cleared out and lightly barricaded. We used them to move quickly and quietly while staying out of the road. They were really helpful, and we made sure to clear them out each winter.

The snow was still on the ground so we were sure that the zeds were still in 'hibernation,' heck, we'd even smashed a few on the way to the store. Suffice it to say we were sloppy, careless. Sure we were keeping an eye out, but the two groups were mixing and joking and walking easily back to the church. I had fallen to the back of the line where my girlfriend was and we were talking, sharing the quite moments till the grind would start and it'd be back to killing zeds taken names. We stopped to look at the sky for a moment, hand in hand, reminiscing about how different it was when I heard the moan. It had come from the house that we were just about to enter. I shouted for the others then drew my little twenty-two caliber pistol and moved into the house carefully while my girl followed with her sawn off semi-auto twenty gauge. She was standing by the door when I heard another moan come from a doorway in front of me. As I moved for it there was a crash from above and a part of the ceiling collapsed. I heard a shriek and turned to see her struggling up from the flailing pile of limbs. She had gained her feet about the same time as the zeds. She stuck the barrel against the head of one that had grabber her by the arm and pulled the trigger. It's brain went flying against the wall as another one grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her towards it. I had reacted as soon as I heard her scream. I put a bullet through the head of a grabber that was pulling at her legs then ran and tried to knock the others off her. It worked for the most part, I heard another shot from behind me then turned to see her lying there shotgun outstretched with a headless zed slumping to the ground. She looked at me and we smiled, I got up and was about to laugh when one of them fell through the hole in the roof, knocking her to the ground. It had used to be a man, big, fat and bloated. It knocked her on her stomach and leaned down to take a bit from her neck. I panicked then, sure I could have put a bullet through it's head, but that might've been risky. So I just dove at it and shoved my hand between it's mouth and her neck. It's teeth clamped down on my wrist and then it pulled. I can remember the pain as it tore my entire hand off and began reached for more. Well I gave him a taste of my pistol then flipped my beautiful over. She was crying, but she nearly tackled me into the wall as she hugged me, then she caught a glance of my hand. She stared at it with a look on her face that I'll never forget, so full of horror, yet with compassion and love all mixed together. I told her to grab the scalpel from her pack quick and to give it to me. She did and I cut a circle around my arm just above the elbow then ran outside. Our 'heavy weapons' guy, Dan was out there. I asked him if his axe was clean and he told me yes, so I knelt down next to the picnic table, layed my arm out on top of it, and had him hit right where I had made the cut. He broke straight through the bone with the first hit, and then all I remember is getting up and stumbling toward the church before I passed out. They dressed the wound once we got back, then brought me to the basement, made me comfortable, and they would have set a watch if She hadn't insisted on staying with me.

**[He looks over his shoulder as the door opens and a pretty young woman comes out. She walks up to him and kisses him on the cheek then greets me with a nod and a friendly smile.]**

**[To her.] **Hey baby.

**[Back to me.] **Every time I opened my eyes there she was. It took me a while to recover, and it's truly a miracle that I ever did, I've heard that amputations are rarely successful.

**Extremely rarely.**

Well then I'm one lucky man, in more ways than one.

**Did you know that your group had the highest survivor rate of any other know group throughout the entire war?**

It doesn't surprise me really. We were well prepared, young and healthy, we had everything going for us.

**Out of the thirty-two of you who started, what was the exact number of survivors?**

**[He looks at his wife and smiles then pulls her close.]**

Thirty-one and three fourths.


End file.
